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Agree

When Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998, when the price of crude was hovering near a 26-year low of $10 a barrel, we thought he’d be a […]

Totally coincident. There has been a lack of social sensibility, specially during the many crisis. Definitely there are market failures (employment and poverty issues) that have to be addressed seriouosly and intensely because when not, no matter what an appropiate fiscal and monetary is in place you are in jeopardy of loosing the elections.

The issue is that Hugo Chavez has been democratically elected and has the supported of the majority in the country still today. Why? Because the presidents in the past failed to bridge the gap, and thought that the uneducated poor would stand living in rich countries and just let their own lifes pass by.
Unfortunately for Venezuela, it didn`t have leaders like those in Chile or Lula now in Brazil, that do care and do a lot to do as countries in Europe, France to Germany have done ever since … and nobody got concerned about France or Germany`s views on that nobody should be poor in a rich country …

As a frequent visitor to Venezuela through many different regimes, including that of Hugo Chavez, I see him as genuinely trying a model of development beyond the ” Washington Consensus” . I observed the attempted coup first hand, which would have been much worse, had it succeeded, and the subsequent efforts by the Fedecamera and the PDVSA mgmt to try to unseat Chavez by destroying the economy. Since neither of these attempts by the ” oligarchs” succeeded, it’s time to give Chavez , despite some of his faults, a chance ,since he is democratically elected. So I think you might adjust your obvious bias in favor of the “Washington Consensus” orthodoxy, and admit that a new wave of resource nationalism is sweeping Latin America, not just Venezuela.

Yes, I agree that Hugo Chavez representes the type of Populist leader sought by the less favored of the Latin American population, regardless of which country they are in. Unfortunately, globalization needs more time to show some of the possible benefits but the working poor of LA cannot wait. The Group of 8 should pay more attention and run a PR campaign to foster a favorable view of all the economic and political changes needed to implement a full globalized economy.

Any person who wants rule a country for 30+ years is obsessed with power, not the well-being of the people. Chavez uses the poor to stay in power. He will provide just enough token “benefits” to the poor to remain in office. However, his main goal and focus is to enrich himself and his cronies, and to stoke an incredibly large ego.

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